Bullock hanging tough

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ATLANTA Kevin Durant, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and Luol Deng are serious roadblocks to getting comfortable in the NBA. But for Clippers rookie Reggie Bullock, injuries pushed him out onto the court against some of the NBA's best players.

“It's pretty much been all All-Stars,” Bullock said of his assignments.

With forward Matt Barnes missing the past two weeks because of a torn left retina and forward Jared Dudley nursing a sore knee, Bullock moved into the Clippers' rotation at small forward, playing significant time in the past seven games.

And even though he's a rookie, Bullock has been asked by Coach Doc Rivers to keep some of the top scorers in the NBA from taking over games.

“We've thrown him in. He's had to guard some tough guys,” Rivers said. “It's not a fun position to guard every night.”

And while Rivers is aware that going up against players such as Durant and Anthony can be good for the long term, in the short term, it's not easy.

“You want him to do well. I don't want him to have trial by fire and then get shot,” Rivers said. “But he's doing well. He's hanging in there.”

The tests against Durant, George, Anthony and Deng have made Bullock a believer that he can play at this level.

“It's a confidence-grower. Those are tough players to guard, and I'm trying to do as good of job as I can,” he said. “You can't stop those guys. It's just about competing and making life tough on them.”

Bullock said earlier this season that he struggled with Rivers' defensive concepts because of how different they were from the things he did at North Carolina under Roy Williams.

But a month into his first NBA season, Bullock said he's caught up.

“When I first got into the league during training camp, I knew it was way different from what I was used to,” he said. “Now, when I see college games, I wonder what they're doing on defense. It's so different.”

Bullock had two rebounds and an assist in 10 scoreless minutes Wednesday.

Off the court, Bullock has adjusted the NBA life seamlessly, becoming a popular figure inside the locker room because of his agreeable personality.

“He's just a low-maintenance rookie,” Rivers said.

Meeting in Memphis

The Clippers complete one of two back-to-backs on their season-long trip today when they travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies.

After meeting in the past two postseasons in incredibly physical series, you might think there's enough history to get all that bad blood boiling.

Add in that this will be the Clippers first trip back to Memphis since being eliminated in Game 6 last spring, and you might expect the past to weigh heavily on the Clippers' minds.

“Forget last year. Last year shouldn't matter to us anymore,” Rivers said. “They beat us at our place (earlier this season). To me, that's what should matter. If we're thinking about last year, we're already wrong.

“We should think that they walked into our building and beat our butts. And we should come in and want to play.”

Notes

Dudley's sore right knee isn't bothering him as much, and Rivers said there are no restrictions on his minutes. Still, he's going to pay closer attention to the Clippers' starting small forward. “I always watch Jared because I know he's not 100 percent,” Rivers said. ...

Before Wednesday's games, .500 was good enough for the third-best record in the East, with some calling for playoff reform. One possible solution would be to ignore conference affiliation, putting the teams with the 16 best records into the playoffs. Rivers said he likes that idea, though the competition committee likely won't discuss it much. “I don't think we should overdo it,” he said. “I do believe 16 teams, that would be great. I would like that. But, logistically, it would never work. It'd be very hard to do.”

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